[Med-privacy] Google Health

[peter marshall]

February 21, 2008
Google Health Begins Its Preseason at Cleveland Clinic

By Steve Lohr

For 18 months, Google has been working to come up with a product=20
offering and a strategy in the promising field of consumer health=20
information. Until now, the search giant hasn=92t had anything to show=20=

for its labors other than bumps along the way =97 delays and a =
management=20
change.

But on Thursday, Google=92s technology for personal health records, =
which=20
is still in development, is getting a big endorsement from the=20
Cleveland Clinic. The big medical center is beginning a pilot project=20
to link the health information for some of its patients with Google=20
personal health records.

Cleveland Clinic is at the cutting edge of health information=20
technology, and its more than 100,000 patients each has a personal=20
health record. But a sizable portion of those patients are retirees,=20
notes Dr. C. Martin Harris, the clinic=92s chief information officer.=20
Many of them, he said, spend about five months elsewhere, typically in=20=

Florida or Arizona, and the clinic=92s sophisticated electronic health=20=

records don=92t follow them there.

=93It forces the patient to become his or her own medical historian,=94 =
Dr.=20
Harris said.

The Google personal health record, he said, is a solution to that=20
problem, among others. A person can approve the transfer of information=20=

on, say, medical conditions, allergies, medications and laboratory=20
results from the clinic=92s computers to a Google personal health record=20=

=97 a series of secure Web pages.

The pilot project will last six to eight weeks, and involve less than=20
10,000 patients. The project with Cleveland Clinic is =93a milestone=94 =
for=20
Google, said Marissa Mayer, a vice president, who took over management=20=

of the health team six months ago.

Google=92s personal health record is still in development, and it will =
be=20
introduced publicly and made widely available, after the pilot project=20=

is concluded, Ms. Mayer said.

To be sure, Google is only one of several companies trying to make a=20
business from Web-based personal health records. Microsoft, for=20
example, brought out its entry, called HealthVault, last October, and=20
it has commitments from medical centers including New York-Presbyterian=20=

Hospital and the Mayo Clinic. WebMD, Revolution Health and others also=20=

offer personal health records.

While it=92s still not entirely clear what Google=92s personal health=20
record will be like, its approach seems to be ambitious and=20
comprehensive. Google has its own user interface, while Microsoft, for=20=

example, appears to be focusing on back-end storage. Google is offering=20=

automated data links, so the patient does not have to type in personal=20=

data, as is required with some personal health records. And Google,=20
along with Microsoft, has the deep pockets and technological knowhow to=20=

offer personal health records free to millions.

Other medical centers are ready to sign up. =93This is truly a=20
patient-controlled health record, and that=92s a very significant step =
in=20
the drive toward a more consumer-oriented system of health care,=94 said=20=

Dr. John D. Halamka, chief information officer of the Harvard Medical=20
School.

Dr. Halamka is also chief information officer at Beth Israel Deaconess=20=

Medical Center in Boston, which plans to link its electronic patient=20
records with Google personal health pages. He is also a member of=20
Google=92s Health Advisory Council

[NYT]=